Jefferson Airplane

aiiieee

Was listening to "Won't you try..." last week!

I picked up Baron von Tollbooth... (Kantner/Slick/Freiberg) from the cheapie bin at Fry's last week and am seriously loving it. All that Mellotron, interesting piano work from Grace, crystalline Jerry Garcia steel, actual tunes-it's like the country-prog move JA could never pull off..

I should totally check that one out, I ended up liking at least half of Sunfighter

I like "When I Was a Boy I Watched the Wolves" and "Million" a lot.

"When I Was a Boy I Watched the Wolves"

http://cards.littleoak.com.au/197172_daily_mirror_my_club/wolverhampton_wanderers.jpg

I imagine the song is not sung in a Black Country accent though, if only

Can't really say I get the thought process that brought them here (did a little reading, and it was commissioned), but in the film, it works okay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAJ4-Ey7jBM

jesus the music supervision in "american hustle" is beyond horrible.

http://www.openculture.com/2012/02/jefferson_airplane_wakes_up_new_york_jean-luc_godard_captures_it_1968.html

Saw that about a year ago--fantastic. The guy who walks across the frame just past 4:00 looks like Marvin Gaye, but he didn't have the beard yet, so it can't be him.

Jefferson Airplane’s Paul Kantner suffers heart attack
http://blog.sfgate.com/loaded/2015/03/27/jefferson-airplanes-paul-kantner-suffers-heart-attack/

Never knew Marty Balin put out a single in 1962: "Nobody but You"/"I Specialize in Love." Pretty ordinary and close to unrecognizable. There are two sales listed on Discogs, both around $200.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax1waV3lr_U

(A couple of posts question Balin's contribution to the band earlier in the thread. I'd agree with Christgau--the most soulful folkie ever. On "Today" and "Come Up the Years" especially, he's amazing.)

Balin formed the band.
The bside of the solo single at least was included on the JA box set JA Loves You. Though I've long since lost the first disc so can't listen to it myself.

Paul Kantner passed earlier today.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Jefferson-Airplane-s-Paul-Kantner-dies-at-74-6791483.php

rip. love those first few kantner/slick post-ja lps, ridiculous as they might be on occasion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWucwTZ2oIc

Yeah love that Grunt label stuff.
But Jeefferson Airplane with the classic Slick/Dryden lineup are one of my favourite bands ever. Especially Baxters.

classic rock poll & radio would be less cool without Jefferson Airplane. they had some dope jams

Sorry to hear this. I think Marty Balin sang most of my favorite JA songs, but (I had to check) seems that Paul wrote or co-wrote almost all of them: "Come Up the Years," "Today," "The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil," "Won't You Try/Saturday Afternoon," "We Can Be Together."

classic rock poll & radio would be less cool without Jefferson Airplane. they had some dope jams

― Flamenco Drop (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, January 28, 2016 8:00 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah... i don't think i even knew who "Jane" was by before the poll but it placing in the top 30 was so justified, incredible song.

the best!

The Airplane seem to have slipped off a lot of people's radar in the recent past, but the run of records from _Pillow_ through _Volunteers_ is pretty solid, as are a few of the mid-'70s Starship records. Kantner was always a great interview -- he was prone to the occasional conspiracy-theory excursion, but was never less than articulate and entertaining. RIP.

in the dead musician harvest of Jan 2016, Kantner's will not rate terribly highly going forward. I will only say that I like Blows against the Empire, his piece de resistance, after thinking that Jeff Airplane and everything branching off from it fucking sucks for many years, and that I saw him 20 years ago on St. Mark's Place, and he was wearing shorts and wore his tube socks up to his kneecaps.

Every airplane album is great. Same with every starship album up to Spitfire. And baron Von tollbooth and the chrome nun.

Classic. RIP.

The Kantner/Slick/Freiberg stuff is slept on, it's true.

Total Jam:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re_XSIJubZA

More "Jane" love...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hjs9eUlv2AQ

The very early live sets by Jefferson Starship include live versions of tracks from those solo Grunt label lps. Certainly seeing a lot of Blows Against, Baron von and Manhole on the 74 era sets I've got.

Such a great song. RIP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rvetP_Kcgk

Sunfighter the solo Slick/Kantner lp is also great.
I was listening to it a couple of years back having just heard one of the first couple of Howlin Rain lps several times and was hearing similarity in influence combination of folk, psych with a lot of gospel or something similar in it.

I'm not sure what the ins and outs of the PERRO project were but seemed to be a lot of the SF and LA musicians living around Marin and other semi rural escapes around the time collaborating on musical projects. So seemed to include several of those early Grunt label lps, David Crosby's If I could only Remember My Name and a few other things. What I've heard from that stuff has been pretty great.

Marty was woken up by a truck one morning, which happened to be a truck with Volunteers of America painted on the side.[1] Marty started writing lyrics down and then asked Paul to help him with the music.

RIP. Honestly, as a teen I probably listened to more Airplane than I did Bowie.

Crazy thing is, the current Starship lineup is in my town tonight, and the show will go on.

Michael Corcoran, from FB:

1988 in San Francisco, the grand opening of Slim's. We are drinking Cape Cods like they're Koolaid and maybe there's a pill or two. I see Doug Sahm and go up to him. "Hey, man, we were just hanging out at the Hole In the Wall last week," I say. Not me, says Doug. "I'm from Austin, man." No recognition. "Doug Sahm," I said. "I know you man, c'mon." I'm not Doug Sahm, he says. Wow, stuck up, I think. The next day in the newspaper is a photo of some of the celebs on hand for Slim's opening. And there's Doug Sahm, only in the photo it says he's Paul Kantner.
RIP, man.

The Airplane are getting a Grammy lifetime award in two weeks.

wow Kantner and Sahm kinda were doppelgangers

^^Similar heritage, I think.

Just happened to watch this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somebody_to_Love_(30_Rock)

Hm what if I link it this way?

Much better.

Saw a (unconfirmed) report online that Signe Anderson also died on Thursday. Even if this proves to be untrue, I can't be alone in believeing for the longest time that she'd died back in the '70s.

http://psychedelicsight.com/11890-anderson-signe-obituary/

Signe Anderson, who was the band's first female singer before Grace joined, died the same day as Kantner.

Because of this ^, I'm listening to the Takes Off album (I never had before). Quite okay.

Takes Off is really great, I loved her singing, damn it really is gonna be a boomer a day this year huh?

The "Signe's Farewell" archival live album is pretty sweet too--she's in better voice and the band feels a bit more at ease with the material.

Fun Facts from Wiki about RCA's censorship of Takes Off:

RCA executives found some of the lyrics too sexually suggestive. They had the band change the lyrics in "Let Me In" from "I gotta get in, you know where" to "You shut your door, not that ain't fair", and "Don't tell me you want money" to "Don't tell me it's so funny". In "Run Around" they had the line "Blinded by colors come flashing from flowers that sway as you lay under me" altered to "that sway as you stay here by me". With "Runnin' 'Round This World" the executives insisted that "trips" in the line "The nights I've spent with you have been fantastic trips" referred to taking LSD, though the band insisted it was merely common slang. Even replacing the word "trips" with a guitar apreggio did not placate RCA's concerns with the line's sexual connotations and refused its inclusion on the album, and the recording remained unreleased for the next eight years.

Meanwhile RCA was allowing Elvis Presley to sing "Do the Clam" and "Queenie Wahine's Papaya"

This seems to be the only footage of them with Anderson on Youtube. It's the studio version of the song dubbed in, but some good shots of her with the band around 1:06 and 1:33.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw-6-stIFJc

That's astounding about Signe Anderson (the timing). Takes Off remains my favourite album of theirs.

Enjoying this tune "Sketches of China" which popped up in a playlist. Kanter solo project feat. Grace Slick.

Not actually sure whose project it is to be honest.

I've never been a big fan of the Jefferson Airplane, but this performance makes me see the band in a different light.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKtJ0XTwgTE

Their image, at least here, is not the colorful peace-loving stereotypical stuff, they look like they wouldn't be out of place onstage with the Velvet Underground, a band whose image and ethos I much preferred.

This is coming from someone who is too young to have experienced this firsthand. I am 47 and I love dark psyche rock after spending a youth growing up on metal and gothic music. Grace Slick looks particularly goth here to me, actually.

Does this mean there are some deep cuts on Surrealistic Pillow that I would really enjoy? Or is this video an anomaly?

She does look pretty sinister there...They definitely had an edge far beyond what you call peace-loving stereotypical stuff; from Crown of Creation onward they became increasingly militant, and things like "House at Pooneil Corners," "Wooden Ships," and "Mexico" feel doomy and apocalyptic.